8-3 Project 2 Historical Analysis Essay Submission PDF

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The Equal Rights Amendment Ammar Bin Mohsen HIS 200: Applied History Southern New Hampshire University April 25, 2021

The Equal Rights Amendment

Mohsen 2 The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a historical phenomenon that several legendary figures tried to introduce in the United States Constitution to nullify laws that discriminated against American women. The ERA was a proposed amendment that many activists established to provide all Americans with equal legal rights regardless of gender. It encouraged these advocates to adjust the American Constitution by creating provisions that would eliminate the legal distinction between female and male individuals in regards to occupation, property ownership, family role, and divorce. Its primary objective was to offer an ultimate lawful remedy against gender discrimination by discouraging the determination of the legal privileges of women and men based on sex. Besides, the ERA became necessary to the United States Constitution. It categorized sex as a suspect classification to help law courts acknowledge the legal status of gender discrimination to subject governmental actions and decisions that treat women and men differently to strict judicial inspection and highest justification levels. As a result, it made the American Constitution have zero-tolerance when it comes to sex-based discrimination. Although the ERA received criticisms from opponents, it sent a preemptive message that sex should not define the legal rights of women and men, thus impacting women’s gender role inside the family, child support, and financial issues in the workplace. The Nineteenth Amendment, gender discrimination, and an increased number of women in the workplace facilitated the establishment of the ERA in the United States. The number of female individuals in the business environment started growing after a century of struggle. The increment triggered feminist activists to advocate for ERA to help women obtain equal job opportunities because they had shown their potential and productivity, just like male employees. Accordingly, these advocates decided to push the United States to increase the number of women in corporations based on job-related knowledge and expertise rather than sex to empower them to receive adequate funds to settle bills, provide basic needs,

Mohsen 3 and enhance living standards. Additionally, gender discrimination, primarily against women, remained a critical contributor to the ERA. Davis (2008) reveals that the ERA started with an assumption that sex-based discrimination against female individuals was prevalent and deep in American society. As a result, the ERA supporters wanted a policy that would not make gender an acceptable phenomenon to determine the legal rights of American citizens. Besides, the Nineteenth Amendment allowed women to vote, thus motivating the National Women’s Party to advocate for a constitutional adjustment to make gender-based discrimination illegal to enable women to enjoy voting rights (“An Amendment That Requires Both Sexes to Be Treated Equally, n.d.). ERA changed American history by advocating for men and women to participate in the workplace and political activities based on factors other than sex. Famous political leaders and activists advocated for the ERA to end the legal distinction between women and men based on gender. The National Women’s Party, under the leadership of Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, wrote and presented the ERA in Congress in 1923 to make sex-based discrimination illegal (Alice Paul Institute, 2018). These legendary activists developed three sections that incorporate equal rights that the United States shall not deny or abridge on account of gender, provide Congress with power to use appropriate legislation to enforce various provisions, and indicate duration the amendment shall become effective after ratification (Myricks, 1977). Congress passed the ERA in 1972 with two-thirds majority votes (Alice Paul Institute, 2018). The House of Representatives and the Senate then sent this amendment to the American states for approval. It received support from only 35 instead of the required 38 states to become law before the ratification deadline (Alice Paul Institute, 2018). Furthermore, the ERA did not succeed due to opposition and criticism. Several female reformers, including Phyllis Schlafly, initiated STOP-ERA campaigns to discourage the ERA ratification by arguing that it would interfere with

Mohsen 4 American women’s traditional roles, sexual assault laws, alimony, and protective labor policies (“The Equal Rights Amendment,” 2020; Davis, 2008). Despite the reintroduction of the ERA in every Congress session, this amendment has not become part of the United States Constitution because of criticisms and anti-ERA campaigns. The ERA had many immediate and long-term consequences. It had a great impact on the American society in terms of gender roles inside the family, child support, and financial perspectives. Paul and Eastman advocated for the ERA to encourage the United States to embrace a law that provides all American citizens with equal opportunity to seek employment to receive adequate salaries to meet financial needs. In other words, they desired to amend the American Constitution to offer legal provisions that mandate organizations and employers to increase the number of women in the workplace to match that of their male counterparts to obtain enough money to support families and avoid denying them excellent chances to advance career development. However, many labor feminists stood against the Equal Right Amendment “believing it would eliminate protections for women in labor law, over time these concerns have been allayed, and more unions and labor feminist leaders have turned toward supporting the amendment.” (Equal Rights Amendment History & Women in the Workforce, n.d.) The ERA also changed the traditional roles of women in the family. It encouraged female individuals to provide psychological, physical, social, and financial support to their families. For instance, working-class women began supporting their husband and children when their spouses could not get jobs. In addition, the ERA made child support and child custody a parenting role for both women and men equally to achieve gender equality. It inspired parents to provide basic needs to children, whether they are divorced or partners, to avoid making one party experience burden. “Each parent would have an equal duty to bear the burden of support. The income of each parent and the needs of the children would be taken into consideration, and a more equitable decree would be mandated. If both

Mohsen 5 parents have equal financial resources, it would appear reasonable to expect an equal contribution toward the support of their children.” (Myricks, 1977) Several notable Supreme Court cases incorporate historical evidence that reveals the way the ERA impacted American society with respect to gender role in the family, child support, and financial concerns. Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp, 1971 is the first genderbased discrimination case that demonstrated the way employers hired women and men with pre-school aged children to advance their career (Georgetown University Law Library, 2021). The case determined that business entities could not deny female and male applicants with children attending preschools an opportunity to assume job positions. This historical evidence supports the argument regarding financial challenges because the involved employer, Martin Marietta Corp, provided all candidates with an equal opportunity to work and earn salaries to solve their financial issues. Alice Paul Institute (2018) also indicates that California embraced the ERA to specify equal employment rights to eliminate sex-based discrimination in the workplace to allow men and women to earn a living. Similarly, Conaway v. Dana, 1974 showed the way the ERA supported alimony by providing a sex-neutral approach that divorced parents would use to support their children (Myricks, 1977). It perceived separated parents as primary caregivers instead of mothers and fathers to care for their children without basing parenting responsibilities on motherhood or fatherhood roles (Davis, 2008). The ERA enabled parents to rely on individual capabilities and preferences to assign responsibilities to themselves while inspiring organizations to hire people without engaging in sex discrimination. In conclusion, I developed an interest in the ERA because I wanted to research and acknowledge the way it impacted women’s gender role in the family, enhanced child support, and addressed financial challenges without sex-based discrimination. Initially, I

Mohsen 6 thought that the ERA supporters were advocating for women’s rights to seek employment and engage in voting practices. However, I have recognized that Paul and Eastman introduced the ERA to provide equal opportunities to both female and male individuals by eliminating gender discrimination in all aspects of life. Historians who anticipate researching this topic should investigate whether the ERA included a provision that mandates employers to offer equal salaries to male and female workers operating under the same working conditions, hours, and roles.

References “An Amendment That Requires Both Sexes to Be Treated Equally: A Men’s Rights

Mohsen 7 Activist Voices Support for the Era.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7028/ “The Equal Rights Amendment.” (2020). Retrieved from https://www.ushistory.org/us/57c.asp Alice Paul Institute. (2018). ERA: Frequently asked questions. Retrieved from https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/faqs#:~:text=Section%201%3A%20Women %20shall%20have,State%20on%20account%20of%20sex. Davis, M. F. (2008). The Equal Rights Amendment: Then and now. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 17(3), 419-460. https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:332626/fulltext.pdf Georgetown University Law Library. (2021). The Equal Rights Amendment. Retrieved from https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4172365 Myricks, N. (1977). The Equal Rights Amendment: Its potential impact on family life. The Family Coordinator, 26(4), 321-324. https://www.jstor.org/stable/581751?seq=1 Equal Rights Amendment History & Women in the Workforce. (n.d.). Gale. https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/womens-studies/collections/women-in-theworkforce-and-the-equal-rights-amendment...